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Turning Point (Pearl) [Part II]

Oof, sorry for the wait. I procrastinated and got writer's block.

-

Oh stars, Pearl thought to herself, carefully dragging her injured leg behind her. That battle had been a disaster.

At first it was just a normal battle, with Pearl fighting alongside Rose against Pink Diamond's troops one moment and the next there had been a high pitched whistling noise from the sky, signaling that ships were going to land. Pearl looked up, confused. There shouldn't be ships; there shouldn't be backup; the Crystal Gems were supposed to win...

A large shadow fell over her.

They weren't Pink Diamond's...

...and they were terrifying.

They were covered in gold and copper that glittered in the sunlight, with large energy cannons attached to both sides, and a wingspan of easily 100 meters. The warships hovered in the air, held up by powerful engines that hummed loudly.

A yellow parallelogram - a diamond - had been indented into the bottom of the ship and Pearl frowned. These ships were Yellow Diamond's?

Oh, the diamonds meant business.

The ships had suddenly began charging up their attacks, yellow sparks flying from the barrel of the two cannons.

Pearl had watched in horror, feeling Rose grab her arm tightly. The Crystal Gems weren't used to dodging enemy fire from above.

Then beams of super-heated plasma rained down.

In a flash of light, Rose threw up her shield, the diameter at least eight feet across, and braced herself against the onslaught of enemy fire. Pearl felt a burning pain in her leg, the familiar crackle of energy that threatened to disperse her physical form. She bit her lip to stop herself from letting out a pained cry. Oh stars, she thought, flinching. She could take this, right? She had dealt with stray aura sizzling around Yellow Diamond's body hitting her plenty of times, she could take this. Her eyes snapped closed as struggled to keep her mouth shut.

Don't draw attention to yourself.

She didn't remember hearing the order, but after a moment, the Crystal Gems started running.

So they had ran too.

Pearl didn't know how, but she had somehow become separated from Rose. But she knew Garnet was nearby them when they had retreated. She could help her. She just had to pray that someone didn't destroy her physical form. She knew the way back to the base; she could regroup with her comrades there; she had to get there, she told herself.

Her leg, though only grazed by the plasma blast, burned and probably would have blistered if she had been organic. It must had been that experimental energy cannon Yellow Diamond had super briefly mentioned at the meeting.

Pearl finally started slowing down, now only jogged down the twisted path that lead to their base. After several more minutes of walking - and she kept glancing around her, to make sure no one followed her - she arrived at the entrance to the cavern they dwelled in.

Moss, vines and other forms of Earth flora grew around the mouth of the cave, and she carefully pushed it out of the way, careful not the break any of it. The soil turned softer as she progressed down the tunnel.

Luckily, Pearl wasn't claustrophobic because the tunnel could become very tight at times. Other gems might have shapeshift to get through, but she was skinny enough to travel through them with ease. She found herself in a large cave, not bothering to stop, knowing the tunnels like the back of her hand.